The Knight Center teaches student and professional journalists how to better report "on the world's most important beat," says Freedman. It was the first environmental journalism center to be established in the United States, and continues to be a leader in both environmental research and both graduate and undergraduate education.

"Leading the Knight Center is different than being a full time faculty member because of the administrative responsibilities, but there are great opportunities to deal with students, prospective students and researchers in the rapidly changing fields of both science and journalism," says Freedman, who won a Pulitzer Prize for beat reporting in 1994 with his Detroit News colleague Jim Mitzelfeld.

Freedman says the Knight Center focuses on three areas: preparing students to report on the environment, environmental health and science; conducting original research on topics like climate change, fracking and the use of scientific experts as news sources; and reaching out to train professional journalists on how to cover the environment better and to scientists to help them more effectively communicate their work using the media.

Freedman says communication is essential to the scientist, journalist, and the public.

“If we want scientists to communicate to the public, they need to be trained to do so in the same way they are trained in scientific methods and analysis,” he says.

“Students going into journalism often have a specific passion and are issue focused or event focused,” Freedman says. “They like to write and communicate, whether it’s through words, whether it’s on tape, by visual imagery, photography or graphics.”

Regardless of a journalist’s passions, successful journalists and journalism students understand the importance of neutral and objective reporting. “If you’re going to work for mainstream media or any of the specialized publications, you need to be neutral and objective in your reporting,” Freedman says. “Your audience shouldn’t know how you feel about a particular issue.”

The Great Lakes Echo is an online environmental news service founded in March 2009 by the Knight Center’s associate director, Dave Poulson. The site brings together content from students, staff, professional journalists and partnerships and presents environmental news coverage that the public often doesn't get from mainstream media.

Instead of covering issues solely relevant to Michigan, Freedman says they are moving towards making the content “less Michigan focused” and towards “diversifying the geographic spread” in hopes of nationalizing the site’s audience and recognition.